Analysis of To Die For You



I do not know what it is like to die for you.
I am too young.
I saw too little.
I shed no blood.
I took no pain.
No wisdom guides my vision,
No ideals quicken my stride.
I see but little, I expect but much, I receive mere pittances,
And  my voice has always been quick to rise
In anger.
And I wonder what it would be like to die for you.

I do not know what it is like to cry for you.
I am too dry.
I saw no death.
I shed no tears.
I took no refuge.
But suddenly on an avenue I saw a man afire,
An old man,
Dignified, wise, without malice, a lover of children,
Put to the torch by some young men with idle hands.
And I wondered what it would be like to cry for you.

I do not know what it is like to lie for you.
I am too guileless.
I behold no phantoms.
I harbour no illusions.
I take no umbrage.
But I have seen your eyes grow opaque with lies.
I have seen your children twitch and, twitching, die,
And I have seen your mothers reach out and cry.
Your history vandalised.
Your artists brutalised.
Your gods demeaned and desecrated.
Your intentions falsified.
I have seen your leper's ruling touch
Reach out to corrupt and maim.
And I wonder what it would be like to die for you.


Scheme axxbxcdeexA afxexxxcea aeeexeffbbxdxxA
Poetic Form
Metre 111111111111 1111 11110 1111 1111 1101110 1011011 111101011110111 011111111 010 0110111111111 111111111111 1111 1111 1111 11110 11001110110101 111 1010110010110 110111111101 0110111111111 111111111111 11110 101110 1101010 11110 11111110111 11111010101 01111101101 11001 1101 110100010 101010 11111101 1110101 0110111111111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,143
Words 241
Sentences 28
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 11, 10, 15
Lines Amount 36
Letters per line (avg) 25
Words per line (avg) 7
Letters per stanza (avg) 298
Words per stanza (avg) 81
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Submitted by Humbird on February 08, 2021

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:12 min read
10

C Y Gopinath

Author, storyteller, cook, traveller. I enjoy making words dance and sing. more…

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